Pratt Institute
School of Design, MFA Interior Design, MS Sustainable Environmental Systems
Project Name: Harvesting Water
Project Website: https://katstamanaha.wixsite.com/tamanaha
As sea levels rise, areas formerly at risk for 100-year floods will soon be submerged at high tide. How can the interior adapt to embrace the new reality of water? This thesis tests how floodwater can become both a catalyst and context for design, reimagining normative spatial conditions as a living symbiotic relationship between inhabitant and enclosure. The presence of shifting environmental water embeds time into site, etching destruction and regrowth in materiality. The program uses environmental waters to cultivate phytoremediative algae as raw materials for product development. The industrial algae farm and small business incubator integrate economic, social, and climate resiliency in the disinvested site of Coney Island, catalyzing the local economy while detoxifying waters. This project aims to design a prototypical green infrastructure intervention in which tidal, flood, and stormwater become a revitalizing new form of adaptive interior.
